Unpublic school

From Sunday’s editorials: The closing of school basketball games to the public in Rensselaer needs more of a public explanation. (Apologies for not posting this Sunday. Here you go if you want to weigh in.)

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There are two essential ingredients to a spectator sport: A sport, and spectators. A game without spectators might just as well be called practice. Spectators without a sport to watch is, well, just silly.

Which brings us to a recent basketball game at Rensselaer High School. There were spectators, and there was a sport, but never the twain would meet, not that night at least.

Why not? We’ve yet to hear a clear explanation for why parents and other fans were shut out of the Dec. 11 game — actually, a double header of boys and girls games. Sounds like it might have been exciting to watch, especially for those with kids on the court.

In the absence of an open public discussion of what prompted these extraordinary and rather surreal circumstances, the public is left with a nagging sense that their public schools are not as safe as the district would have it believe. When a school event has to locked down, when parents aren’t allowed into to watch their children play, when neither school officials nor police appear confident enough to let fans — let alone cheerleaders — into a gymnasium to watch a sporting event, something is seriously amiss.

The official word from the Rensselaer school district has been vague at best.

Supposedly, there were rumors of threats involving a former player for the opposing team, Hudson. There was some suggestion of heightened risk of trouble since the former player had a connection to Albany, says Rensselaer City Schools Superintendent Gordon Reynolds.

Both schools notified parents with automated telephone calls that the games were not open to the public.

And that’s it.

That is not enough.

The public is entitled to more than a vague reference to rumors. Just how serious was this threat? Were officials worried about a rumble, or another Columbine High?

Did the threat simply vanish after one evening? If all is now well — which we’ve yet to hear — what was done to ensure that there is no repeat of this?

Parents are entitled to know that the school their children attend is safe. Students are entitled to attend school — classes and extracurricular events alike — without fear. The community has a right to expect that a level of law and order that allows law-abiding citizens to gather unafraid in a public school.

As for the games, they turned out just fine for the home team. The Rensselaer boys won, 60-49, and the girls’ team prevailed, too, 33-29. Good games, though really, you had to be there.

THE ISSUE:

Rensselaer school officials are vague on why they closed a game to the public.